Fan behind HDDs in Antec Solo

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swivelguy2
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Fan behind HDDs in Antec Solo

Post by swivelguy2 » Sun Jun 14, 2009 4:42 pm

I'm hoping to get input from Antec Solo owners on whether this will work in my next planned system.

I want to put a 120mm fan BEHIND the HDD cage in a Solo, and seal all the gaps so that it draws air in through the HDD cage and expels it into the lower half of the case, directly onto a fanless GPU.

What I need to know is if there will be room for such a mod. Obviously, I will have to add a vertical panel of some sort of material onto the back of the HDD cage, and mount the fan onto that. Can the 3.5" HDD(s), in the provided elastic suspension, be pushed forward far enough that (with right-angle SATA connectors) the added panel could sit flush with the back of the HDD cage, or would it need to be set farther back?

Also, on the motherboard side of the case, how close does the side of the HDD cage come to the mobo? In other words, if the HDD cage were extended backwards, would it hit the motherboard, or would it pass over it, and with how much clearance?

I appreciate any tips from people who've actually handled a Solo. I'm hoping for a good deal or rebate to come along before I pick mine up.

nightmorph
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Post by nightmorph » Sun Jun 14, 2009 7:02 pm

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Last edited by nightmorph on Fri Apr 21, 2023 11:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

NeilBlanchard
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Post by NeilBlanchard » Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:48 am

Hi,

The wires and cables from the HD's stick out -- and this is the fan position used in the Sonata that works so poorly. I would just use the stock positions on the front of the Solo -- these will actually help move air through the case; rather than churn it around inside the case.

RaptorX
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Post by RaptorX » Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:09 am

You don't need a 120mm fan. 2 x 92mm fans work great for cooling the HDDs and the airflow is spread over the whole HDD cage; a single 120mm wouldn't be able to cover all of it

Personally I have the SOLO + 2 x92mm Nexus RealSilent @ 7V (~890rpm) and I can't hear them. The HDD temp is 4-5C lower than the configuration with no intake fan. Hope this helps!

swivelguy2
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Post by swivelguy2 » Tue Jun 16, 2009 9:35 pm

Why would I want a 92mm fan(s) at the front of the case, when I can have a larger (lower rpm) fan farther back into the case, with less airflow restriction in its immediate vicinity and a longer pathway to the ears? I think there ought to be room with a shorter graphics card, like a Radeon HD4350, but I've never seen a picture or description of it done.

Here's my basic plan for the whole system:

- Front-intake PSU (80mm fan), ducted to fresh air through the top two 5" drive bays.
- 120mm intake fan, at the top rear of the HDD cage which will be turned into a duct by sealing it off from everything except the front intake filter. The HDD will go in the top of the 3 elastic mounts, and the bottom of the cage may be filled with a foam block so that the airflow all passes the HDD.
- Top-down cpu heatsink (a la Noctua NH-C12P) with 120mm fan
- Rear holes by the PCI slots sealed, so that the only exit for case air is the rear exhaust near the CPU, which will not have a fan

By doing this, I've got fresh air to the PSU, positive case pressure in the main compartment to prevent dust buildup in optical drives and other crevices, a total fan count of 3, a top-down heatsink providing splash cooling for RAM and MB components, and airflow directed onto the video card edge-on, very effectively cooling a "fanless" card.

Any comments? This system build will probably not take place until 2010, so I can't say exactly what the components are going to be, but I am planning to get the solo whenever a good deal pops up and do the case modding beforehand.

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Post by NeilBlanchard » Wed Jun 17, 2009 2:40 am

Hi,

A fan in the middle of the case only churns the air around, and does not improve air flow through the case. It adds very little to cooling in the case.

You probably do not even need the front fans on the Solo.

swivelguy2
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Post by swivelguy2 » Wed Jun 17, 2009 5:23 am

Sorry, I think I'm not explaining myself very well. What I'm trying to accomplish is essentially the "birdhouse duct," as seen in this classic thread.
Bluefront wrote:This "bird-house" device is a very versitile way to de-couple, noise-dampen, and cool your hard drives with one easily-constructed mod. As side benefits, it can also hold a rather large intake air-filter, mounts any size intake fan 6" further back in the case (which reduces noise), and can be angled to blow cooling airflow directly at the under-side of a video card..from only a few inches away.
I would be using the HDD cage itself to make up the walls of the birdhouse, adding a panel (foam-core board or acrylic or something) to its rear, and sealing up any other gaps necessary, so that the fan could only pull fresh air through the front filter.

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Post by nutball » Wed Jun 17, 2009 7:32 am

Well, I tried this sort of setup in a Solo build I recently did for a friends son, in which I used a passive graphics card (HD4670). Overall I found much better results with the fan on the floor of the case, at the rear blowing out through the PCI slots. HD temps with this configuration were slightly higher than with it between the HDs and graphics card, but not so much as I was worried (high-30's compared to low-30's IIRC). The temperature of the graphics card however was *much* reduced with the fan at the rear.

Folks fuss too much about HD temperatures IMO, and getting rid of the heat from a graphics card effectively helps everything else in the case.

In the end though the simplest way to find out the answer to your question is to experiment. It's part of the fun :)

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